State supreme court elections, 2017
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Two states held supreme court elections for four seats in 2017. The only seat up for contested election this year was in Pennsylvania, where sitting Justice Sallie Mundy (R) defeated Judge Dwayne D. Woodruff (D). In Wisconsin, the other race that could have produced a contested election saw Justice Annette Ziegler (R-affiliated) run unopposed. Two other judges in Pennsylvania, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor (R) and Justice Debra Todd (D), were retained.
Overview
Most states do not hold elections in odd-numbered years. That is why only a few states held judicial elections in 2017. Pennsylvania holds judicial elections exclusively in odd-numbered years. Wisconsin holds judicial elections every year, but in some years, no supreme court justice's term will end and therefore no supreme court election will be held.
In 2017:
- Pennsylvania held both partisan elections and retention elections for three seats.
- Wisconsin held a nonpartisan election for one seat.
Methods of judicial selection vary by state.
2017 political balance
Pennsylvania uses partisan elections to choose its high court judges. Once elected, an incumbent justice must stand for retention upon the expiration of his or her term. Wisconsin uses nonpartisan elections to choose its high court judges, but Ballotpedia collects information about the political and ideological leanings of judges in order to offer better context for court decisions.
- Heading into the 2017 election, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had a 5-2 majority of Democratic justices.
- Heading into the 2017 election, the Wisconsin Supreme Court had a 5-2 majority of Republican-affiliated justices.
Because only one seat on each court was up for competitive election, the 2017 elections did not change partisan control of either court. In Pennsylvania, current Republican Justice Sallie Mundy defeated Democratic Judge Dwayne D. Woodruff. Had Woodruff defeated Mundy, the Democratic majority on the court would have grown to 6-1. In Wisconsin, the seat up for election was held by Republican-affiliated Justice Annette Ziegler. Justice Ziegler ran unopposed and won re-election. Therefore, the election did not change the political balance of the court.
State by state
Pennsylvania
Three justices on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had terms ending in January 2018. Pennsylvania uses both partisan election and retention as its election methods. Justices are initially chosen through partisan election and then must stand for retention at the expiration of each successive term. In a retention election, voters are asked to answer "yes" or "no" to the question of whether a judge shall serve another term on the bench. The filing deadline was March 7, 2017. The primary election was on May 16, 2017, and the general election was on November 7, 2017.
- Current Republican Justice Sallie Mundy defeated Democratic Judge Dwayne D. Woodruff in a state-wide partisan election. Mundy was appointed to the court in 2016 and was required to stand for election in order to remain on the bench for a full term. They were each unopposed in their parties' primary elections and faced each other in the November general election.
- Chief Justice Thomas Saylor (R) was elected to the court in 1997 for a term that commenced in January 1998. He stood for and won retention for another ten-year term.
- Justice Debra Todd (D) was elected to the court in 2007 for a term that commenced in January 2008. She stood for and won retention for another ten-year term.
Pennsylvania candidates in competitive partisan election
Judge Dwayne Woodruff (D)
On the common pleas bench since 2006. Candidate's website
In the competitive partisan election, current Republican Justice Sallie Mundy defeated Democratic Judge Dwayne D. Woodruff, who sits on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.[1]
Mundy was appointed to the court in 2016 by Democratic Governor Tom Wolf and confirmed by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania State Senate to replace former Justice Michael Eakin. In Pennsylvania, when a justice is appointed, that seat is up for election in the next election occurring ten months or more after the appointment. By Pennsylvania tradition, interim appointments in that state do not run for election, serving only for the interim period. However, in this case, Governor Wolf stated upon Mundy's appointment that he did not expect her to adhere to this tradition and in fact expected her to run for election to a full term. She filed to do so. Before her appointment to the court, Mundy served for six years on the Pennsylvania Superior Court, volunteered as a public defender, and maintained a private law practice.
Mundy's challenger was Democrat Dwayne D. Woodruff, a Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas judge from Allegheny County. Woodruff has been on the Court of Common Pleas since 2006. He ran for a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2015 but was defeated in the Democratic primary. Before he began practicing law, Woodruff played football for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pennsylvania candidates for retention
After a justice has won a partisan election, he or she serves a 10-year term. After the 10-year term expires, a statewide yes/no vote for retention is conducted. A retention vote is not competitive; the justice does not face any competitors, and the only choice for voters is whether to retain the justice on the court. If the justice is retained, he or she serves another 10-year term. If the judge is not retained, the governor, subject to the approval of the State Senate, appoints a temporary replacement until a special election can be held.
In 2017, two Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices were required to stand for retention. Both were retained.
Wisconsin
- See also: Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, 2017
One justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court had a term ending in July 2017. Wisconsin uses nonpartisan election as its election method. This means that a primary election does not narrow the field to one candidate from each political party, but rather, no party affiliations are attached to candidates on the ballot, and the top two vote-getters in the primary advance to the general election. However, in 2017, the incumbent was unopposed, and the seat did not appear on the primary ballot on February 21.
- Justice Annette Ziegler (R-affiliated) was elected to the court in 2007 for a term that commenced in August 2007. She was required to run for re-election in 2017 to remain on the bench for another ten-year term. The filing deadline for the election was January 3, 2017; no candidate filed to run against her. She therefore did not appear on the primary ballot but instead appeared on the general election ballot on April 4, 2017. Ziegler won re-election.
Justice Annette Ziegler (R-affiliated)
On the supreme court bench since 2007.
See also
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- ↑ This information was current as of November 14, 2017.